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The council code was accepted into the board. Cathedral code

Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1649 (cathedral).

The changes that had taken place in socio-political relations were to be reflected in law. In 1648, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, which continued its meetings until 1649.

A special commission was established to draw up the draft code, and the discussion of the draft by representatives of the Zemsky Sobor took place by estate. One of the reasons that accelerated the codification work was the aggravation of the class struggle - in 1648 a mass uprising broke out in Moscow.

The Cathedral Code was adopted in 1649 in Moscow by the Zemsky Sobor and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Code was the first printed code of Russia, its text was sent to the orders and to the places.

The sources of the Cathedral Code were the Sudebniks of 1497 and 1550. , Stoglav 1551, decree books of orders (Rabbit, Zemsky, etc.), royal decrees, sentences of the Boyar Duma, decisions of Zemstvo councils, Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation. Later, the Code was supplemented by New Decree Articles.

The Cathedral Code consists of 25 chapters and 967 articles. It systematized and updated all Russian legislation, there has been a division legal regulations across industries and institutions. In the presentation of the rules of law, causality has been preserved. The Code openly secured the privileges of the ruling estate and established the unequal position of the dependent estates.

The Council Code consolidated the status of the head of state - the king as an autocratic and hereditary monarch.

With the adoption of the Code, the process of enslaving the peasants was completed, the right of their indefinite investigation and return to the former owner was established.

The main attention was paid to judiciary and criminal law. The forms of the trial were subjected to more detailed regulation: accusatory-adversarial and search. New types of crimes were identified. The goals of punishment were intimidation, retribution and isolation of the offender from society.

The Cathedral Code of 1649 was the main source of Russian law until the adoption of the Code of Laws Russian Empire in 1832

The Cathedral Code of 1649 regulated the forms of feudal landownership. The code contained a special chapter, which fixed all the most important changes in the legal status of landownership. It was established that the owners of the estates could be both boyars and nobles. The order of inheritance of the estate by sons was determined, part of the land after the death of the owner was received by the wife and daughters. Daughters could also receive an estate as a dowry. The cathedral code allowed the exchange of an estate for an estate or for a patrimony. The right to free sale of land, as well as the right to pledge it, was not granted to the landowners.

In accordance with the Council Code, the votchina was a privileged form of feudal land tenure. Depending on the subject and method of acquisition, the estates were divided into palace, state, church and privately owned. The estate owners were given broad powers to dispose of their lands: they could sell, mortgage, transfer the estate by inheritance, etc.

The Code limits the economic power of the church - the acquisition of new lands by the church is prohibited, numerous privileges are reduced.

To manage the estates of monasteries and the clergy, the Monastic Order was established.

The Council Code also regulated the pledge right.

The law of obligations continued to develop in the direction of replacing personal liability with property liability. Spouses, parents, children were responsible for each other. Debts on obligations were inherited; at the same time, it was established that the renunciation of the inheritance also removes debts on obligations. The legislation defined cases of voluntary replacement in the obligations of one person by another. In the event of natural disasters, the debtor was granted a deferral of debt payment for up to 3 years.

The Cathedral Code is aware of contracts of sale, exchange, donation, storage, luggage, lease of property, etc. The Code also reflects the forms of concluding contracts. The cases of concluding contracts in writing were regulated, for some types of transactions (for example, the alienation of real estate), a serf form was established, requiring witnesses to be “ordained” and registered in the Prikaznaya hut.

The Council Code established the procedure for recognizing the contract as invalid. Contracts were declared invalid if they were concluded in a state of intoxication, with the use of violence or by deceit.

The subjects of civil law relations were both private and collective persons.

Inheritance law knows inheritance by law and by will.

The will was made in writing, confirmed by witnesses and a representative of the church. The will of the testator was limited by class principles: testamentary dispositions could only concern purchased estates; ancestral and served estates passed to the heirs according to the law. The circle of legal heirs included children, a surviving spouse, and in some cases other relatives.

Family and granted estates were inherited by sons, daughters inherited only in the absence of sons. The widow received part of the patrimony for "subsistence", that is, for lifetime possession. Ancestral and granted estates could be inherited only by members of the same family to which the testator belonged. The estates were inherited by the sons. The widow and daughters received a certain share of the estate for "living". Until 1864, lateral relatives could participate in the inheritance of the estate.

Only a church marriage had legal force. No more than three marriage unions were allowed to be concluded by one person during the whole life. The marriageable age was set at 15 for men and 12 for women. Parental consent was required for marriage.

In accordance with the principles of house building, the power of the husband over the wife, the father over the children was established. The legal status of the husband determined the status of the wife: who married a nobleman became a noblewoman, who married a serf became a serf. The wife was obliged to follow her husband to the settlement, into exile, when moving.

The law determined the status of illegitimate children. Persons of this category could not be adopted, as well as take part in the inheritance of real estate.

Dissolution of a marriage was allowed in the following cases: the departure of one of the spouses to a monastery, the accusation of a spouse of anti state activities, the wife's inability to bear children.

The Council Code does not give the concept of a crime, however, from the content of its articles, we can conclude that a crime is a violation of the royal will or law.

The subjects of the crime could be individuals or a group of persons, regardless of their class affiliation. In the case of a crime committed by a group of persons, the law divided them into main and secondary (accomplices).

The subjective side of the crime was determined by the degree of guilt. According to the Code, crimes were divided into Intentional, negligent and accidental.

When characterizing the objective side of the crime, the law established mitigating and aggravating circumstances. The first included the following: a state of intoxication, uncontrollability of actions caused by an insult or threat (affect). The second group included: the repetition of the crime, the totality of several crimes, the amount of harm, the special status of the object and subject of the crime.

The objects of the crime in accordance with the Council Code were: church, state, family, person, property and morality.

The system of crimes can be represented as follows: crimes against faith; state crimes; crimes against the order of government; crimes against decency; malfeasance; crimes against the person; property crimes; crimes against morality.

The system of punishments included: the death penalty, corporal punishment, imprisonment, exile, confiscation of property, removal from office, fines.

The goals of punishment were deterrence, retribution and isolation of the offender from society.

The Council Code established two forms of trial: accusatory-adversarial and investigative.

The accusatory-adversarial process, or court, was used in the consideration of property disputes and petty criminal cases.

The trial began with the filing of a petition by the interested person. The bailiff then summoned the defendant to court. Last if available good reasons he was given the right not to appear in court twice, but after the third failure to appear, he automatically lost the process. The winning party received the corresponding certificate.

There were no significant changes in the evidence system. Testimony, written evidence, oath, lot were used.

Reference from the guilty and general reference were used as evidence. The first was the reference of the party to the testimony of the witness, which had to coincide with the allegations of the referee. If there was a mismatch, the case was lost. In the second case, both disputing parties referred to the same witnesses. Their testimony was the basis for the decision of the case.

As evidence, a “general search” and a “general search” were used - a survey of all witnesses regarding the facts of the commission of crimes or a specific suspect.

Judgment in the accusatory-adversarial process was oral. Each stage of the process (subpoena, guarantee, decision, etc.) was formalized by a special letter.

The search process, or detective, was used in the most important criminal cases. The case in the search process, as well as according to the Sudebnik of 1497, could begin with a statement from the victim, with the discovery of the fact of a crime, or with a slander. The state bodies that conducted the investigation of the case were given broad powers. They interrogated witnesses, carried out torture, used a "search" - a survey of all witnesses and suspects, etc.

Chapter XXI of the Council Code regulated the use of torture. The basis for its application was usually the results of the “search”. Torture could be used no more than three times with a certain break. Testimony given during torture had to be corroborated by other evidence. The testimonies of the tortured were recorded.

Cathedral Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (967 articles)

Chapter I Of Blasphemers and Church Rebels. And it has 9 articles.

Chapter II On the Sovereign's Honor and How to Protect His Sovereign's Health. And it has 22 articles.

Chapter III About the Sovereign's Court, so that no outrage and abuse from anyone would be in the Sovereign's court. And it has 9 articles.

CHAPTER IV Concerning subscribers, and who counterfeit seals. And it has 4 articles.

Chapter V About money masters who will learn how to make thieves' money. And it has 2 articles.

Chapter VI On travel letters to other states. And it has 6 articles.

Chapter VII On the service of all military men of the Muscovite state. And it has 32 articles.

The Cathedral Code of 1649 is a single set of laws of Russia that regulates all spheres of life of the state and citizens.

Reasons for the creation of the Cathedral Code

The last legislative document, adopted before the creation of the Cathedral Code, belonged to 1550 () and was undoubtedly outdated. Since the adoption of the last document, there have been significant changes in the state and economic system: new state bodies have been created, decrees have been adopted, sometimes repeating the old ones with some clarifications, and sometimes contradicting them. It was impossible to work with an outdated document, so we decided to create a new one.

Existing legislative acts and new documents were not stored in one place, but were scattered throughout the country and belonged to the departments in which they were adopted. This led to the fact that legal proceedings in different parts of the country were conducted on the basis of different laws, since in more remote provinces they simply did not know about orders from Moscow.

In 1648, the Salt Riot took place. The workers who rebelled demanded civil rights and the creation of a new regulatory document. The situation became critical, it was no longer possible to postpone, so it was assembled, which spent a whole year developing a new bill.

The process of creating the Cathedral Code

The creation of a new document was not carried out by one person, as was the case before, but by a whole commission headed by N.I. Odoevsky. The code went through several main stages before it was signed by the king:

  • first, careful work was carried out with numerous sources of law (documents, judicial codes, etc.);
  • then meetings were held on the topic of certain legal acts that raised any doubts;
  • the drafted document was sent for consideration to, and then to the sovereign;
  • after editing, there was another discussion of all the amendments;
  • the bill was to come into force only after it was signed by all members of the commission.

This approach was innovative and made it possible to create a complete, well-organized document that compares favorably with its predecessors.

Sources of the Cathedral Code

The main sources of the Council Code were:

  • Byzantine law;
  • Lithuanian Statute of 1588 (used as a model);
  • petitions to the king;
  • ukazny books in which all issued acts and decrees were recorded.

      • In the Council Code, there has been a tendency to divide the norms of law into various branches and to systematize in accordance with this division. This approach is used in modern law.

      Various branches of law in the Council Code of 1649

      The Code determined the status of the state, the status of the king, and also contained a whole range of norms regulating all branches of state activity, from legal proceedings to the economy and the right to leave the country.

      Criminal law was replenished with a new classification of crimes. Such types as crimes against the church, crimes against the state, crimes against the order of government, crimes against deanery, malfeasance, crimes against the person, against morality and property crimes have appeared. The classification became more detailed, which greatly facilitated the judicial proceedings and sentencing process, as there was no more confusion.

      Types of punishment were also added: execution, exile, imprisonment, confiscation of property, a fine, dishonorable punishments.

      The growth of commodity-money relations led to the transformation of civil law. The concept of an individual and a collective appeared. Women received more rights to make certain transactions with property. Purchase and sale agreements were now sealed not verbally, but in writing (a prototype of a modern agreement between the parties).

      There have been only minor changes in family law. The principles of "Domostroy" were in effect.

      The Council Code also determined the order of legal proceedings, criminal and civil. New types of evidence of guilt appeared (documents, kissing the cross), new types of search and procedural measures were identified. The court has become more fair.

      A convenient system for describing laws and acts made it possible not only to quickly and efficiently use new law, but also, if necessary, to supplement it - this was another difference from previous documents.

      Enslavement of peasants

      The Cathedral Code was of great importance for the peasants, since the issues of feudal property were described in it as fully as possible. The code did not give the peasants any freedom, moreover, it tied them even more to the land and the feudal lord, thereby enslaving them completely.

      Now there was no right to exit, the peasant with his whole family and things completely became the property of the feudal lord, which can be sold, bought or inherited. The rules for searching for runaway peasants have also changed: now there was no time limit of ten years, they were looking for a person all his life. In fact, the peasant could not leave or run away from the feudal lord and was obliged to obey his master all the time.

      The meaning of the Cathedral Code

      The Council Code of 1649 outlined new trends in the development of law and jurisprudence, fixed a new public order and new social norms. It became the prototype of the modern systematization and cataloging of legal documents, creating a restriction on the branches of law. The cathedral code was in effect until 1832.

The Cathedral Code of 1649: briefly about the reasons and prerequisites for adoption, about the creation and content of laws, and about the role in history played by its approval during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich.

Reasons for the adoption of the Council Code

The main reason for the adoption of the Council Code was the chaos that existed in the legal system of Russia.

It consisted of the following points:

  1. Over the past 100 years, 445 orders have been issued. Most of them are outdated or contradict each other.
  2. Laws were scattered across departments. This was due to the existing system of passing laws. New legal provisions were adopted when a separate order had a need for it. But new decrees were recorded only in the book of this order. Therefore, officials did not know many laws.
  3. After the Polish-Swedish war in Russia there was a decline in politics and economics. An immediate change in the situation in the country was required.

In the summer of 1648, the Salt Riot broke out in the capital. One of the conditions of the rebels was the adoption of new legislation. This event served as an impetus, and the king yielded to the rebels.

How the Cathedral Code of 1649 was created

After the uprising, the sovereign assembled the Zemsky Sobor. At the meeting, a directive was adopted to revise the legislation and the following plan of action was outlined: to compare the sources of law with the Code of Laws and agree on them, to supplement some points with new articles.

At the congress, a special commission was formed to implement this plan. Prince Odoevsky was appointed at the head of this commission.

In the fall, the activity of the Zemsky Sobor began. It consisted in designing the Code. The creation of a code of laws was carried out in 2 chambers. In the 1st were the Duma and the king, in the 2nd - the cathedral.

Stages of creating a legislative act in brief:

  1. Work with all sources. Elected people took an active part here. They provided sources in the form of a petition.
  2. Discussion of the petition.
  3. Revision of the submitted bills by the king and the Duma.
  4. Making legislative decisions about a particular item.
  5. The signing of the resulting result by all representatives of the Council.

Revision and legislative decisions were made only by the tsar with the Duma. The task was completed in the shortest possible time. It took only six months to develop and implement the project.

General characteristics of the Code by industry

The adopted Code served as the basis of the law until 1832. It contained 25 chapters. There were 967 articles. In the main legislative provisions, for the first time in the history of Russia, a structure was outlined for the division of laws into branches.

Civil law

The main points touched upon in the branch of civil law are the points of property law and inheritance law. Much attention was paid to contracts.

According to the new rules, contracts concluded in writing and in the presence of several witnesses were valid. For failure to comply with the terms of the contract, the payment of a penalty was provided.

Inheritance law was divided into inheritance by law and by will. The will must be executed in the presence of witnesses and concerned only the purchased estates. The right to inherit property was given to wives and daughters.

A system of mortgage relations on property was introduced. Pledge relations terminated from the moment of full payment of the debt.

State law

The Code established the status of the leader of the state - the king, the autocratic monarch. Questions about peasants and land, the procedure for moving across the country's borders, and determining the status of estates were also determined.

Criminal law

Crimes were divided into several areas:

  • against the Church;
  • against the king and his family;
  • against management - false evidence, false accusation, production of counterfeit money, willful travel abroad;
  • against a person - murder, insults, beatings;
  • against morality - fornication, disrespect for parents;
  • official offenses;
  • property offenses;
  • against deanery - incorrect taxation, maintenance of brothels, sheltering the fugitives.

Family law

In this industry, the principles of housing construction were preserved. But a few rules have been added. The punishment of a wife who killed her husband was to bury the guilty one alive in the ground, leaving only her head.

Divorce was allowed only under the following conditions:

  • departure of the spouse to the monastery;
  • activities of the spouse against the state;
  • wife's inability to bear children.

Introduction of procedures "search", "right" and "search"

The innovations of the Cathedral Code also affected the legal proceedings.

The following procedural steps were taken to obtain evidence:

  1. A search is the questioning of potential witnesses to a crime. After that, their words were analyzed and a picture of the offense was drawn up.
  2. Pravezh - punishment in the form of beating with rods. Applied to debtors who did not pay their debts. The punishment lasted for a month. If during this time the debt was returned or guarantors appeared, the right was terminated.
  3. Search is a system of measures aimed at clarifying the circumstances of especially serious crimes.

The Code even regulated torture. It was allowed to use torture during the search, but not more than 3 and only with a break.

The historical significance of the Cathedral Code of Alexei Mikhailovich

The Cathedral Code is the first written set of laws. Prior to this, decrees were simply promulgated in crowded places. The adoption of the Cathedral Code was a consequence of the development of Russian law in the last 2 centuries.

In addition, as a result, the judicial and legal system of the state was strengthened, and the foundation of the legislative system of Russia was created.

At present, one can find both the old-style Cathedral Code and the text with a translation into modern Russian.

In 1649, Tsar Alexei himself took up the affairs of government. On his personal instructions, a set of laws was drawn up - the Cathedral Code. The young sovereign wanted to establish justice and better order by giving the people a new set of laws. This thought was very reasonable and correct. The people then did not know those laws by which they must live and sue; it was this that helped the lawlessness of clerks and governors. The old code was not printed, it could only be written off, and therefore few people knew it. Additional decrees to him were known only by officials, they were not announced to the people, but only recorded in the "indicative books" of Moscow orders. In such conditions, clerks and judges turned things around as they wanted: some laws were hidden, others were distorted; there was no way to check them. Putting the old laws in order, making one set of them and publishing it for general information was a very necessary thing. In addition, it was necessary to review the content of the laws, improve them and supplement them so that they correspond to the needs and desires of the population. All this was decided to be done at the Zemsky Sobor. The cathedral began to operate on September 1, 1648. It was attended by elected people from 130 cities, both service and tax; met separately from the boyar duma and the clergy. They discussed old laws and decrees and asked the king to repeal obsolete or inconvenient ones and adopt new laws. The sovereign usually agreed and the new law was approved.

Strengthening the central government.

The second half of the 17th century is characterized by the strengthening of absolutist tendencies, the power of the king became less despotic in form, but stronger and more unlimited in essence. The strengthening of autocratic power, in addition to general historical ones, was caused by the following specific factors:

  • - enslavement of the population and exacerbation of social contradictions;
  • - the completion of the formation of the service class, which was under the control of the state;
  • - economic recovery, development of agriculture, handicraft production and foreign trade allowing to increase tax revenues;
  • - the complication of the management system, the growth of the apparatus of officials;
  • - the emergence of new foreign policy tasks, the need to improve the armed forces, now called upon to resist not the backward eastern, but the advanced European armies; in addition, with the accession of Ukraine, an acute problem arose of its preservation and integration into Russia.

Absolutist tendencies were manifested:

  • - in changing the title of the king. Instead of the former: "Sovereign, king and Grand Duke of all Russia" after the annexation of Ukraine, he became the following: "By God's grace, the great sovereign, king and grand prince of all Great and Small and White Russia is an autocrat." The title emphasized the idea of ​​the divine origin of royal power and its autocratic nature;
  • - in strengthening the authority of power and prestige of the personality of the king by the Cathedral Code. A crime against the person of the monarch was equated with a crime against the state, which was one of the signs of absolutism.

Of particular importance is the Cathedral Code of 1649 - a grandiose monument to the legal thought of Russia, which summed up the original result of the legislative activity of the Muscovite state. The decision to create it was made at the Zemsky Sobor in July 1648, which met immediately after the well-known Moscow riot. A special commission headed by Prince Nikita Ivanovich Odoevsky prepared a draft Code. It was discussed at the Zemsky Sobor during September 1648 - January 1649, and in April-May the first edition was printed (1200 copies). After approval by the cathedral, the code was called the Cathedral Code and remained in force for about 200 years, until the adoption of the Code of Laws in 1832.

The original of the Cathedral Code has also been preserved. It is a scroll - a column about 309 meters long, written by various scribes who left notes on its margins about the source from which this or that article was taken or what material was used as the basis for new articles. The original list contains the signatures of the Council participants who adopted the Code (315 in total). In a gilded silver reliquary, cast by order of Catherine II, it is now kept in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts in Moscow.

The Cathedral Code consists of a preface, conveying the history of its creation, 25 chapters, divided into 967 articles. They regulate almost all aspects of the socio-political and social life. By branches of law, all chapters can be grouped into several sections: chapters I-X unite the norms of state law (“On blasphemers and church rebels”, “On the sovereign’s honor and how to protect the sovereign’s health”, “On the sovereign’s court, so that there is no outrage and abuse from anyone at the sovereign’s court”, “On the forgery of seals” , “On money masters who will learn how to make thieves' money”, “On going abroad”, “On the service of military people”, “On prisoners”, “On the customs service”, “On washing and transporting and bridges”). The second section - the norms of the judiciary and legal proceedings - chapters X-XV (“On the Court”, “The Court of the Peasants”, “On the Court of the Patriarchal Writs”, “On the Monastery Order”, “On the Kissing the Cross”, “On the Deeds Done”). Chapters XVI (“On local lands”), XVII (“On estates”), XIX (“On townspeople”) and XX (“On serfs”) can be combined from the point of view of property law. Finally, chapters XXI (“On robbery and tatin cases”) and XXII (“On the death penalty ...”) are mainly devoted to criminal law.

Code of 1649 - latest collection law, built according to the type of Moscow lawsuits (casual principle). Theoretical basis it was a religious-Orthodox dogma. As before, it lacked many important parts of the law (about public institutions, on family and inheritance law, etc.), data on which historians draw from other sources. The implementation of the Code concerned the following:

  • - in the adoption of this Code itself, which systematizes and codifies laws;
  • - in the attenuation of the activities of Zemsky Sobors. The central government, having grown stronger, no longer needed the support of this class-representative body; that is why, after the decision of 1653 to reunite with Ukraine, they did not meet in full force;
  • - in changing the composition and role of the Boyar Duma. On the one hand, the number and influence of Duma nobles and clerks increased in it, who got into the Duma not for nobility, but for personal abilities and service to the tsar, and on the other hand, numerical expansion turned it into a cumbersome, inefficient governing body, which forced the tsar to discuss the most important issues with a narrow circle of close associates and trusted persons who were members of the Punishment Chamber;
  • - in the development of the command system. Approximately 40 permanent orders can be divided into three groups: state, palace and patriarchal. In turn, among the state ones, one can single out territorial ones, which were in charge of managing individual regions (Siberian, Smolensk, Little Russia, etc.), and sectoral (orders of the Big Treasury and the Big Parish, in charge of financial and economic issues; Local order - land provision of service people; military - Streltsy, Cannon, Reitarsky; Ambassadorial - led foreign policy etc.);
  • - the number of ordered people grew, the bulk of which were "mongrel people". The formation of professional bureaucracy was also a sign of absolutism;
  • - in strengthening the positions of the central authorities in the field in connection with the appointment of governors from the center, to whom the zemstvo and provincial elected elders were now subordinate;
  • - at the beginning of the reorganization of the army. Regiments of the "foreign system" (infantry - soldiers and horsemen - Reiters) appeared, displacing the noble militia and consisting of Russian hired soldiers under the command of officers - foreign mercenaries;
  • - in strengthening the subordination of the church to the state as a result of the establishment (according to Chapter X111 of the Code) of the Monastic order, which was charged with the trial of the clergy and people dependent on it, the restriction of church land ownership (however, under pressure from the church in 1677, the Monastic order was abolished), as well as carrying out the church reform of Patriarch Nikon;
  • - economic backwardness, leading, for example, to a lack of funds for the maintenance of the administrative apparatus and the army, which meet the requirements of the time;
  • - the social immaturity of the nobility, which has not yet outlived patriarchy and poorly understands its general class, and even more so national interests;

Preservation of many norms and bodies traditional system management. For example, the activities of administrative bodies were based on custom and were not regulated by written laws; the functions of orders were not differentiated and often intertwined (almost every order dealt with both financial and judicial issues). The executive apparatus practically itself determined what to carry out from the plans of the supreme power, and what not.

Thus, the order system, based on custom, which did not have a clear division of functions and legal regulation, limited the supreme power. It was impossible to transform this system on a traditional basis. So, Alexei Mikhailovich created the Secret Affairs Order, subordinate only to him and designed to control the activities of other orders. But soon it turned into an additional body of the command system, without changing its essence. Therefore, in order to overcome the omnipotence of orders, Peter 1 had to break this system and even move the administrative center to the new capital.

The local government system also retained many archaic features. In some places where local self-government bodies were preserved, a kind of dual power developed, which prevented the performance of managerial functions. Although, unlike feeders, the activity of the governor was a service, not a reward, it was not paid by the state. The governor was kept at the expense of the local population, as feeders of the 16th century.

The noble militia remained the main military force. At the same time, the requirements of modern warfare forced the creation of a permanent regular army equipped with powerful firearms. The regiments of the “foreign system” that appeared due to lack of funds for their permanent maintenance, armament and training were formed only for the duration of hostilities and could not completely replace the already obsolete noble cavalry.

The royal power continued to be sanctified by the authority of the Church and Orthodoxy, which substantiated its divine origin. But in the conditions of the beginning crisis of religious consciousness and the secularization of culture, which engulfed part of the tops of society and the settlement, a new rational ideological justification for its omnipotence was required. The need to develop economic and cultural ties with European countries, where, under the influence of the Reformation and other factors, the attitude towards the nature of royal power has changed dramatically.

The personality of Alexei Mikhailovich had a contradictory effect on the course of events. On the one hand, largely due to his personal qualities (sincere piety, inclination to compromise, nobility, erudition and intelligence), he managed to overcome the consequences of social upheavals, annex Ukraine and, as a result, strengthen the authority of the tsarist government. But, on the other hand, his qualities such as contemplation and passivity, the desire to entrust the government of the country to his closest associates (Morozov was replaced by Prince N.I. Odoevsky, then Patriarch Nikon came, and after his disgrace Ordin-Nashchekin and Matveev followed), and the main thing - the desire to preserve and improve the traditional order, predetermined the inconsistency of the political course. In general, Alexei Mikhailovich represented the outgoing type of Orthodox tsar, who no longer met the requirements of the times.

The most important of the new laws were the following:

  • 1) the clergy were deprived of the right to continue to acquire land for themselves, and lost some judicial privileges;
  • 2) the boyars and the clergy lost the right to settle near cities, in settlements, their peasants and serfs and to accept pawnbrokers;
  • 3) township communities received the right to return all pawnbrokers who had left them and to remove from the townships all people who did not belong to the communities;
  • 4) the nobles received the right to search for their fugitive peasants without "lesson years";
  • 5) the merchants achieved that foreigners were forbidden to trade within the Muscovite state, anywhere except Arkhangelsk.

Considering all these new resolutions, one can see that they are all made in favor of service people (nobles) and townspeople (townspeople). Therefore, the nobles and townspeople were very pleased with the new laws. But the clergy and boyars could not praise the new order, which deprived them of various benefits. The mob was also dissatisfied: the pawnbrokers, returned to the taxable state, the peasants, deprived of the possibility of an exit. Thus, the new laws, established in favor of the middle classes of the population, irritated the upper classes and the common people. Legislative work was completed in 1649 and a new set of laws, called the Council Code, was printed and distributed throughout the state.

In the Code, three groups of chapters were the most important.

One group of chapters dealt with crimes against royal power and against the Church. Any criticism of the Church and blasphemy against God was punishable by burning at the stake. Treason to the king, insulting the honor of the sovereign, as well as the boyars, the governor were executed. This testified to the fact that an absolute monarchy had actually developed in Russia - the tsar had unlimited power in the country. The monarchy, as a form of government, began to take shape in Russia since the time of Ivan III. In 1649, it took shape legally.

Another group of chapters was devoted to the rights of nobles. From now on, according to the "Code", the nobleman was recognized the right to transfer the estate by inheritance, provided that the sons of the nobleman would also be in the sovereign's service. These articles of the Code testified that the noble estate (received for service) was equated with the boyar estate (received by inheritance). A new layer of feudal lords - the nobility - became more and more equal in rights with the boyars.

The most important section of the Code was devoted to peasants and townspeople. From now on, according to the Code, the peasants were forbidden to move from one landowner to another and a life-long search for fugitives was established. Townspeople were forbidden to move from one township to another, to move from one craft to another. Runaway townspeople were also wanted. The "Cathedral Code" of 1649 completed the long process of folding serfdom in Russia, which began in 1497.

The most significant measure of the government of Alexei Mikhailovich was a new codification of laws - the publication of the Code of 1649, which replaced the outdated Sudebnik of 1550.

On July 16, 1648, the tsar, the Boyar Duma and the Holy Cathedral, "for the sake of fear and civil strife about all black people", were sentenced to create a commission of 5 boyars (boyars of princes Odoevsky and Prozorovsky, roundabouts - prince Volkonsky, clerks Leontiev and Griboedov) to draw up a project collection of laws. By September 1, 1648, elected representatives from “all the people” of the Muscovite state were summoned to the capital to discuss and approve the Code of Laws.

During the work of the Zemsky Sobor in 1648-1649. the original draft was significantly modified to take into account the petitions that the elected officials brought with them. Then the final text of the Code was read out and all the participants of the Council put their signatures under it.

1. The Council Code interpreted royal power as the power of God's anointed on earth.

For the first time the concept of state crime was defined. Such were all acts directed against the power, health, honor of the king and his family. For everything, the death penalty was relied upon: only for actions that inflicted unintentional damage to the royal authority, for example, for typos in the title or name of the sovereign, they could be torn out with a whip or long sticks (batogs) or exiled to eternal life in Siberia.

Every inhabitant of the Moscow kingdom, having learned about the plans against the tsar, was obliged to inform. To do this, it was enough to shout in the street: “The Sovereign's Word and Deed!” The authorities immediately opened an investigation.

2. The state economy was also especially protected. For stealing royal goods, "royal wheat", catching fish in the royal pond, etc. the death penalty was imposed.

3. Crimes against the church and the patriarch were severely punished. “If anyone,” it was said in the Code, “begins to make obscene speeches to the priest in the church, he will be subjected to a commercial execution,” - flogged at the auction. For "blasphemy against God and the cross," burning was prescribed.

4. Many articles regulated the relations between the population and local authorities. The disobedience of ordinary people was punished, but punishments were also imposed for governors and other officials for extortion, bribes and other abuses.

5. The Code regulated the official duties and landownership rights of nobles and boyar children. The old custom was fixed. However, a new one was proclaimed with respect to the landowning peasants.

6. From the beginning of the XVII century. service people in the fatherland solicited an indefinite investigation of their fugitive peasants. Fearing the desolation of the central districts and the weakening of the army, even Mikhail Romanov went to meet the noble petitions. In 1637, the period of investigation was increased from 5 to 9 years. In 1641, the fixed years were extended to 10 years to search for peasants who had fled, and to 15 years to search for peasants taken out by other landowners.

The Code of 1649 allowed the owners to look for peasants forever, without a time limit, and return them to the estates. The last step was taken towards the establishment of serfdom in Russia. Nowhere now in the center of the country could a fugitive man find shelter in order to wait out the predetermined summer. Lesson summers, like St. George's Day, have sunk into oblivion. (True, the custom was still in effect - “there is no extradition from the Don.” It was possible to hide in Siberia and other distant outskirts, from where neither the government nor the owners had the opportunity to return the fugitive).

7. The Code limited the sources of complete servility. Only a serf by birth was recognized as a free (full) serf. The rest of the serfs were temporary, serving under bondage (under a contract or working off a debt). It became impossible to turn a bonded serf into a white man (full).

The authorities hoped that now the discontent of the debtors turned into complete slaves would subside. The turning into slaves of ruined service people will also stop.

8. Moscow uprising 1648 and a number of other city riots forced to heed the voice of the townsman. Cherny Posad was indignant at "competitors" - Belomests, residents of settlements belonging to monasteries and private individuals. They were craftsmen, traded in the city, but they did not bear burdens and expenses. Black taxpayers pledged their property to the owners of the white settlements, became white-towners, and their share of the tax had to be distributed among the remaining black townspeople. The Code rewrote all Belomestsk residents into a black township, imposed a tax, and henceforth it was forbidden for private individuals and monasteries to have township courtyards and shops in the city.

Fighting the flight of the townspeople, the Code forever attached the townspeople to the settlement. The law of 1658 required the death penalty for escaping from the settlement.

8. The interests of wealthy citizens - merchants, guests (merchants), the Code protected by the fact that severe punishments were announced for infringement on their good, honor and life.

"NEED FOR SOMETHING NEW"

On the whole, the Code summed up the development of Russia in the middle of the 17th century. In addition, it was the basis for the further development of Russian legislation. As noted by V.O. Klyuchevsky, “completing the legislative work of the past, the Code served as the starting point for further legislative activity. Its shortcomings began to be felt soon after its entry into action. It was supplemented and corrected in parts by new decree articles that served as a direct continuation of it: such are the articles on tateb, robbery and murderous cases of 1669, on estates and estates in 1676 - 1677. and others. This detailed, often petty revision of individual articles of the Code, full of hesitation, now canceling, then restoring certain legalizations of the code of 1649, is very curious as a reflection of the moment in Moscow state life, when doubts about the suitability of the norms of law and management methods began to seize its leaders , in whose good quality they so believed, and they embarrassingly began to feel the need for something new, undergrown, "European".